The document discusses factors to consider when deciding whether to rent or buy a home. It outlines costs associated with renting versus owning, including down payments, mortgages, property taxes, and maintenance. The document then details the process of buying a home, including finding an agent, viewing properties, making an offer, closing, moving in, and ongoing responsibilities like paying bills. Resources for various stages of the process are also provided.

1. HANS PAN
30 SEP, 2011

2. • RENT OR BUY
• PROCESS
• RESOURCES

4. • Stability
• Will you and your family live in a place with a long term?
• Is your job or income stable?
• Do you feel comfortable with your kids’ school and education?
• Flexibility
• Not married?
• Like to live in and experience the different cities in the recent years?
• Travel frequently?
• Cost
• What are the costs for renting and buying & owning a house?
• Cost for renting
• Cost for buying & owning
• Down payment
• Mortgage payment
• Property Tax
• Maintenance fee for Condo

5. • Cost for Renting
• $1200 for 1 bed room Condo in Scarborough (power, water, gas,
TV, telephone and network are excluded.)
• $1700 for 4 bed rooms Townhouse in Richmond Hill (utilities are
excluded)
• $2100 for 4 bed rooms Detached House in Richmond Hill (utilities
excluded)
• Cost for Buying & Owning
• Suppose to buy a detached house with $650,000, the costs are
• Down payment, 30% for newcomer immigrant, $195,000
• Mortgage amount, $455,000, monthly pay $1700, suppose the interest
rate is P-0.9 (2.1%)
• Property tax, suppose $4000 for a year, that is $330 monthly in
average
• So the monthly cost is around $2030, similar with the renting cost if you
want to rent a same or similar house

7. • Four phases to buy a house
1. Preparing – finally make clear and list your requirements
2. Finding – finally find your house and make the agreement
3. Closing – finally get the keys of new home
4. Moving – finally move to new home and enjoy the new life

8. • Requirements
• Location
• Where you want to live?
• Where you are working? Which city has the bright job market in your occupation?
• Education
• Do you know what are the correspondent schools of a house?
• What are their performance?
• Community
• Security and safety
• What is the population mix of the community?
• How far is the house to the specific commercial entities, such as Chinese supermarket?
• House
• How many bed rooms do you want/need really? Bathrooms?
• How many cars can be parked?
• How old is it?
• Requirement on basement? Such as walk-out, separate entry, look-out, finished.
• Requirement on type? Detached, semi, town house, condo?
• Special requirements? Such as Ravine view, corner house, not oppose to a road
• Cost
• What is your budget? How much you can afford?
• How much you want to pay as down payment? How much you want to loan from bank
(Mortgage)? What is the monthly payment?
• What is the interest rate trend in the coming 3-5 years?
• Transportation
• How far is it from your current workplace?
• How long it will take for shuttling between home and workplace? How much it will cost?

9. 1. Find an agent
• How long it his/her professional experience?
• Reference from friends/colleagues is the best way
• House seller takes the all commission cost.
• One people takes both selling and buying agent is working.
2. Communicate with your agent on your requirements
• Agent will give you his/her professional feedbacks.
• Perhaps you need to adjust your budget or requirements.
3. Seek the listed houses
• Agent will do the searching and filtering, and give you a list of candidates.
• You also can seek through MLS system.
• You need to review the candidate list, such as
 Review the location, surrounding, and transportation by using Google Maps
 Review the correspondent schools by accessing the website of school district
 Review the schools’ performance by accessing Compare School Rankings website (by Fraser Institute)
• Come up with a list you want to review in person
4. View the candidates
• Request the agent to make the appointments with selling agent
• Go there to view in person – look at the layout, the direction, the decoration, the natural
lighting, the ventilation, the surroundings, the applicants and equipment installed in kitchen and
bathrooms
5. Inspect the house
• Do an inspection by the professional inspector if you want to place a firm offer
6. Place an offer
• Get the final prices of similar, recently-closed transactions in the same community
• Negotiate the price, the closing date
• Place a conditional offer or firm offer
7. Make an agreement

10. 1. Pay the deposit
• Pay to selling agent within 2 days, and normally the amount is $20,000
2. Find a lawyer
• Reference is the best way
• The cost will be approx. $1100~1300
• Need to tell bank and house insurance company who is your lawyer and their fax number
3. Get a mortgage
• Get a bank pre-approved beforehand is a better way
• For newcomer immigrant (within 5 years from the first landing), you can get mortgage as long as
you can pay 30% as down payment
• Select fixed rate or variable rate
4. Have a house/home insurance policy
• Ways to reduce the insurance fee
 Have smoke detectors and alarms
 Have security alarm system
 Being a membership of some professional association, such as CPAC, PEO
 Have both house/home insurance and car insurance in a same company
5. Check the house before closing
• Focus on the issues or problems the seller needs to fix before closing date
6. Make the down payment & other fees
• Lawyer will give you a remaining amount you need to pay before closing and the detailed
information
• Pay to lawyer by the day before closing date
7. Sign off the papers/agreements
• Sign off the agreements the lawyer is authorized to prepare the papers required to close a house
transaction for you
8. Get the keys
• On the closing date, you will get the keys from your lawyer.

11. 1. Open the door (on closing date)
• Ensure the keys are working
2. Record the meters (on closing date)
• Power, Water and Gas
3. Open the accounts
• The lawyer will help you create the accounts for Power, Water and Gas
• But you need to call them to ensure it happens without mistake
4. Clean the house
• The carpet, the ventilator trunk, the bath rooms
5. Move your furniture
6. Have a party
7. Enjoy new life
• Remember to pay the bills of mortgage and property taxes

13. • MLS, http://www.mls.ca
• York Region District School
Board, http://www.yrdsc.edu.on.ca
• Compare School
Rankings, http://www.compareschoolrankings.org
• Google Maps, http://maps.google.com
• Statistic Canada, http://www.statcan.gc.ca
• BMO Mortgage
Calculator, http://www.bmo.com/calculators/mortgagepay
ment
• TD Insurance, http://www.tdinsurance.com

14. • Search

15. • View Details

16. • Map

17. • Street View

18. • Earth View

19. • School Boundary

20. • School Profile

21. • School Rankings

24. CONTACT: HALOPAN@HOTMAIL.COM